North Korea has said that Japan’s insistence on a resolution to the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by the North is “meaningless.”

According to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday, Ri Pyong-dok, a researcher at the Institute for Japan Studies of the North's foreign ministry, accused Japan of demanding a resolution to the unfeasible issue.

Ri said that the demand is contradictory to the stance of the Japanese chief executive who says at every opportunity that he hopes for a Japan-North Korea summit without preconditions.

The official apparently referred to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has often said he is ready to meet with the regime leader Kim Jong-un free of stipulations to settle the abductee issue.

On May 29, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, Pak Sang-gil, said that while Kishida has consistently expressed the desire for a summit "without preconditions" after taking office, Pyongyang is unsure of his objective.

North Korea appears to be indicating that a summit is possible only if Tokyo stops raising the abduction issue.

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